Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil is saying that the government is considering developing a social media app specifically for Malaysians after Meta blocked the live stream of his government's Free Palestine Rally in Axiata Arena yesterday is like me saying that I am considering being a billionaire after a Lamborghini rudely cut me off the road – who are we trying to fool by making farfetched wishes like this?
If it was that easy to be a billionaire or make a social media app that can make hundreds of millions or billions of ringgit a year, everybody would have done it.
If Fahmi is trying to scare social media companies like Meta to sign his MCMC licensing requirement, less he starts his own social media companies, I seriously doubt that the social media companies are going to be scared.
There is a Malay saying. “Kalau kail panjang sejengkal, lautan dalam jangan di duga.”
That social media companies like Meta reacted by taking down posts by Anwar Ibrahim and by blocking the live stream of a function that was organised the government of Malaysia just a week after the Malaysian government announced that it will make it compulsory for social media platforms to apply for licence before they will be allowed to operate in Malaysia, could even be taken as a sign that these social media platforms are telling the Malaysian government to go fly kites.
Fahmi should have really thought things through before he came out with an initiative like the MCMC licensing requirement.
He should have realised that just announcing that social media companies must apply for a licence to operate, without getting them to agree to licencing requirement beforehand, and expect them to agree to the licencing agreement just because he had announced it, is a power move, that can only be imposed on those who are weaker than you.
Social media companies like Meta are not weak entities. They are, in fact, some of the most powerful entities in the world today not only in terms of revenue, but in terms of influence.
The Arab Spring around 15 years ago that toppled multiple governments in the middle east was powered by social media companies.
Social media companies were arguably also very influential in determining the course of the US presidential elections in 2020.
The unprecedented response to the covid pandemic a few years ago, was likely also powered by social media.
Considering that social media platforms are entities that deem themselves to be so powerful that they can topple governments and influence global changes, Fahmi should have thought twice before ordering them to get a licence from the Malaysian government by simply assuming that these social media platforms will just toe to line like contrite school children.
He should have thought: “ What if the social media companies refuse to agree to the licensing requirement? Am I powerful enough to compel them to do it? What if they are the ones that are more powerful than me? If they are more powerful than me, what can they do to make me suffer on account of forcing them to do something that they do not wish to do?”
Had he thought of these questions beforehand, he wouldn’t have come to the sad pass where social media companies like Meta blocked the live stream of an event that his government organised and took down multiple posts by his own boss, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Had he thought of these questions beforehand, he wouldn’t have to be making farfetched wishes, like wanting to start his own social media app, just to save his face, after being embarrassed by these social media companies multiple times.
Sun Tzu observed: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
I certainly doubt that Fahmi will need not fear the result of his battle with the social media platforms.
I can only hope that after two successive defeats in the hands of Meta, he will have at least learned a thing or two about himself, so that his third engagement with the social media companies will turn out to be a victory.
The first sign that he has learned a thing or two about himself, I truly believe, is for him to drop such a far-fetched notion as starting a social media app on his own.
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